Court stops land tribunals verdicts

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday issued an interim order directing the state government, the CCLA, and revenue secretary to not dispose of pending cases at the 32 new special tribunals, until and unless the litigants are heard.

The order will be effective till March 18. After that, the court will decide after perusing the data and procedure being followed in the disposal of cases by the tribunals.

Meanwhile, the Advocate General has been asked to furnish data pertaining to the cases pending at the tribunals, along with their status since the constitution of the tribunals under the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 2020.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy issued these interim orders while dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Nansuri Srinivas Rao, advocate, complaining that the special tribunals are not following the principle of natural justice, wherein every interested party or person in the case should be given an opportunity to submit his contentions, either in person or through advocate.

Advocate General B.S. Prasad furnished a counter, stating that almost all the cases had been disposed of. Explaining the logic of determining the cases without giving notice to the litigants concernedm the AG said the 16,000-odd cases had been pending for several years before the revenue courts at the level of mandal revenue officer, revenue divisional officer and joint collector.

In order to dispose of pending cases, the courts had issued notices. In most of the cases, the litigants had submitted the arguments. Based on those facts, the special tribunals have disposed of the pending cases and those still pending have been transferred to special tribunals.

The Advocate General also submitted that if any litigant had a grievance, he could come to the court. He requested the court to pass orders 'in rem', wherein only aggrieved litigants can raise objections, instead of issuing directions wholesale.

The bench declined and observed that the hurry to dispose of cases was not good. It would negate the very objective of the new law on rights on lands. If such disposals take place, the judicial courts will be flooded with cases on the ground, complaining violation of the principles of natural justice, Chief Justice Hema Kohli said.

Justice Vijaysen Reddy expressed anguish over the fixing of a very short time frame to the tribunals to dispose of cases.